OS X supports a number of different ways to automatically launch applications and services, some of which are a little more obscure than others and may result in applications launching, even though they are not in obvious start-up items locations.

A few users who have installed Snow Leopard on their systems have run into a problem where upon logging in the system claims the "Startup Items" folder is insecure and items from this folder will not be used.

After the release of iWork '09 earlier this year, a Trojan was discovered circulating in pirated copies of Apple's productivity suite of applications (as well as pirated copies of Adobe's Photoshop CS4). Security professionals now believe that the botnet